Natural phenomena, such as earthquakes, flooding, and fires, may cause considerable damage to life and property. Predicting the extent of such damage may assist in prioritizing emergency services to those most affected by the earthquakes, flooding, and fires.
When a storm is expected to arrive to an area that might be flooded, predicting which areas will be inundated, and to what degree, is a difficult proposition due to the many factors involved in the prediction, such as weather patterns, geography, type of surface, etc.
In addition, predicting what future flood disasters may occur is difficult, especially in a time of climate change. Sometimes, government officials have funds to take measures to mitigate possible damage by future flood-causing events, but determining the best way to spend those funds is problematic because it is hard to assess the benefits of spending money on different damage-reduction measures.